Friedrich Balthes - An Attempt to Reconstruct the Oeuvre of a Transylvanian Saxon Artist

Abstract

"Friedrich Balthes was a young master of the national architectural style of the Transylvanian Saxons. Being a victim of the First World War (he died at the age of only 32, on the Serbian front, in 1914), he was almost completely forgotten during the century. Only the architectural monuments created at the beginning of the 20th century, of a remarkable modernity, are left behind by Balthes. These works are part of the German architectural movement, which was the forerunner of modern and also traditionalist architecture of the 20s of last century. Balthes designed many buildings in the national style of the Transylvanian Saxons: a style brought from Germany, and adapted to the Transylvanian cultural landscape. He was a multi-talented personality, also writing various studies and essays on the architectural art, on the cityscape, the culture of housing, interior art, folk art, the maintenance of rural art, the color in architecture and the decoration of the streets with plants, about the old frescoes of the evangelical chirch in Cisnădie and on many other subjects. As a self-confident Transylvanian Saxon intellectual, Balthes published his articles with the purpose to educate his nation for the new cultural ideas of his time. The following study aims to present a sketch of the multidisciplinary legacy of this remarcable artist, by showing some examples of his work. One of Balthes´ many architectural creations we presented herewith the evangelical school and parish house in Bruiu (built between 1912 and 1914), wich is a good example of the architects idea of a new style, whitch overrcomes art nouveau. It was a Transylvanian Saxon national architecture, very modern for that period. It was a harmonious combination of the Transylvanian Saxon vernacular motives, with elements inspired by the German Reformarchitektur, promoted by architect and architecture theorist Hermann Muthesius. Keywords: Art History, Architecture History, Transylvanian Saxons, Reform 1900‒1914, History 1900‒1914"